Google updates Sheets as battle with Office 365 intensifies

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Google's spreadsheet application Sheets has been updated to make handling big data sets more manageable for power users.

They will be able to add data labels to display the exact value of bars or points; Google has also introduced a number of features including being able to filter rows and columns by conditions, adding calculated fields to pivot tables and use the GETPIVOTDATA function.

Another notable addition has been to bring in extra steps to prevent accidental edits; sheet owners will be able to restrict editing to a specific set of users and specific range as well as warning people who may be trying to edit certain cells.

Touch of glass

The latest updates come as Microsoft is preparing the launch of Windows 10. The operating system will contain a free version of Office called Office Touch which offers a small subset of what's available on Office 2016.

Users can also use Office Online, which is quietly firming up to become a capable competitor to Google Apps.